As of this writing, the 2014 World Cup is going on. I’m one of those individuals that doesn’t like soccer (or sports for that matter) in a region where everyone around me does. Over time, I have developed certain techniques that have helped me look less weird than usual during important sports events. If you dislike the World Cup, or the Olympics, the Super Bowl, or the World Series, you might find these useful: a) Resist the temptation to criticize the sport and do not question the rules. You are the odd one out, not everybody else. Moreover, the sport will not go away or change its rules no matter how much sense your arguments...

When learning a new language at school, we tend to learn the formal or at least the average version of the language. We learn to say “please,” and “thank you,” and “you’re welcome.” Having been a language teacher, I know that most people study a language for work or study purposes, and thus teaching the polite forms and family-friendly vocabulary is the right approach. Although since students don’t have the speed or fluency of normal speech, often the result is like watching two extremely polite, yet overly awkward gentlemen talking. Students eventually (and hopefully) develop their skills and...

This is a story about one of those nights where everything went wrong and events took you to a small adventure that was a bit surreal, a bit dangerous, and very, oh so very weird. Yes, even weirder that the time a homeless guy kissed me in the metro. It all started in a small city I was visiting, late at night, after going to the movies at THE movie theater of the city. My friend and I got into my car, and headed for some tacos. After an hour or so, we went out of the restaurant and I casually put my hand on the hood, which I found strangely hot. It turned out that the fan wasn’t working. The restaurant was closing so I decided to...